[R] Dynamic visualisation of R data using Adobe FLEX

[Harsh]

Hi Yihui,
In trying to make FLEX and R talk, I have decided to approach it by
using the Rserver JRclient as the middle tier in a three tier
approach.
Tier 1: FLEX Visualisation
Tier 2: JRclient (http://rosuda.org/Rserve/example.shtml)
Tier 3: Rserver

I have yet to begin working on this front, but would like to know what
you think about this approach. I understand FLEX and JAVA communicate
seamlessly and a JAVA client to communicate with Rserver seems to seal
the deal for making FLEX and R talk to each other.

Thanks
Harsh Singhal




On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Yihui Xie <xieyihui at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Harsh,
>
> If your project is so specific on the regression model, my suggestion
> is to use tcl/tk or Gtk2 interface instead of FLEX, because your
> requirement on interaction is simple (e.g. you don't need to
> drag-and-drop points).
>
> I think the example 'run.cor2.examp()' in 'TeachingDemos' package can
> give you enough inspiration.
>
> Or if you want to do the job (to change the slope) automatically, you
> may want to see the example in the 'animation' package:
>
> ##
> install.packages("animation")
> library(animation)
>
> # default animation in R: with slope changing
> least.squares()
>
> # animation in an HTML page
> oopt = ani.options(ani.height = 450, ani.width = 600,
>    outdir = tempdir(), nmax = 50, title = "Demonstration of Least Squares",
>    description = "We want to find an estimate for the slope
>         in 50 candidate slopes, so we just compute the RSS one by one. ")
> ani.start()
> par(mar = c(4, 4, 0.5, 0.1), mgp = c(2, 0.5, 0), tcl = -0.3)
> least.squares()
> ani.stop()
> ani.options(oopt)
> ##
>
> P. S. I'm quite interested in interactive visualization using R and
> Flash (you may also want to know Flare and SWF Tools!), so please let
> me know if there's any progress in your project.
>
> Regards,
> Yihui
> --
> Yihui Xie <xieyihui at gmail.com>
> Phone: +86-(0)10-82509086 Fax: +86-(0)10-82509086
> Mobile: +86-15810805877
> Homepage: http://www.yihui.name
> School of Statistics, Room 1037, Mingde Main Building,
> Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 2:54 AM, Harsh <singhalblr at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi useRs,
>>
>> I had posted about Adobe FLEX talking to R for rich visualisation.
>> Reply from Jeffery Horner contained links to the
>> revolution-computing.com webpage which had information pertaining to
>> the Bay Users R group Meetup on Web Dashboards with R.
>>
>> I have a very specific project that I need to implement.
>> I wish to use the graphics capabilities provided by Adobe FLEX to
>> visualise outputs from R.
>> For example:
>> I would like to fit a regression model to a dataset in R and provide a
>> FLEX interface wherein, a user may manipulate a slider which would
>> increase or decrease
>> a parameter estimate (between the confidence intervals of the
>> estimate) of a variable to see the effect on the predicted values.
>>
>> I necessarily have to use FLEX for the interface.
>> In trying to make sense of how to go about this task, I have
>> speculated on the following technologies:
>> 1) Using RSOAP which requires a Python client. I am not sure how I can
>> implement this in Flex.
>> 2) Using RSOAP provided by the Biocep project. This is a java
>> implementation and maybe this would suit my requirements.
>> 3) The StatDataML package in R provides the creation of xml files of R
>> objects. Maybe I can use these XML files as encapsulators of R object
>> data and pass it on to FLEX.
>> 4) Since R has interfaces that connect to most SQL database servers, I
>> can convert results of lm objects (summary(lmobject)) to data frames
>> and push them into the SQL database. FLEX can
>> then read the table and extract the relevant fields for output.
>>
>> I am aware that I not a computer programmer which is why I may not be
>> making a whole lot of sense in describing the above scenarios, but I
>> am trying to gain as much information and programming skills to
>> 'decipher'
>> the secret behind using FLEX and R.
>>
>> I have looked at Jeffery Horner's  BBPLOT project
>> (http://data.vanderbilt.edu/rapache/bbplot) and honestly I'm amazed.
>> Replicating this with a FLEX interface is the closest I can get in
>> describing my requirements.
>>
>> Any information/technical sources/tutorials etc in this regard will be
>> much appreciated.
>>
>> Thank you for your time.
>>
>> Regards
>> Harsh Singhal
>> Decision Systems
>> Mu Sigma Inc.
>> Chicago, IL
>>
>